A New World
by rinabaka
Summary: Xinyue had a perfect life in Shanghai, China. When she immigrated to America, her life took a downfall, words swarmed around her text books, concentration problems, but everything started when her English teacher attacked her...
1. Strange Things

**Author's note: Somethings in this story are based on my life when I first came to America, and everything in Xinyue's perspective is in Chinese, so when someone was speaking English, it would be random letters/not making sense words at first. Sorry if I suck at translating.**

**Also, this story starts about three months before The Last Olympian, Please tell me your thoughts or questions!**

**Oh and hopefully I'll remember to post this: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON ORELSE IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND!**

**And yes I understand chinese, since I finally figured out how to renew chapters, I'ma gonna introduce some words in Chinese, and DoubleDimension thought Xinyue means new moon, it could, but in this story its: 馨悦, a more complicated meaning for family and cheerfulness. And no, its not my name, it my friend's name I'm using.  
**

**Oh, and author's notes are in bold. **

Xinyue: Strange things

Hi! My name is Li Xinyue, I just boarded the fourteen hours long flight from the Shanghai Airport to the O'hare in Chicago (**Yes I did my research)**, and the one word that describes my feelings right now is: miserable.

You see, I had a PERFECT 12 years of life before it all gotten thrown away when my mother visited me a month ago...or maybe not, but its a life most would wish for. I had perfection, fame, respect, talent, everything!

...one months ago...

"XINYUE YOU GREW SO MUCH I CANT BELIEVE IT YOU ARE ALMOST A HEAD TALLER THAN WHEN I LAST VISITED!" My mother screamed on top of her lungs while I waited in the crowded airport.

No need to be so surprised... last time she visited was three years ago...

Don't get me wrong, I loved my mother, her name is Alisi, which she changed from Jinyi when she got her English name, Alice, 15 years ago.

One word to describe my mother? Cheerful, she could lift anyone's spirit up, though sometimes its embarrassing when I remember that this happy-go-lucky person is actually my mother.

As I get crushed into a hug, I noticed something's not right. My usually cheerful mother is a LOT less cheerful than before. I know it sounds weird, but usually she's cheerful to the point of exploding. Maybe she also had a weird encounter like me...

..**...around an hour ago...**

_While I was waiting in line for the United States of America arrivals, jeez why can't they make the name shorter?, I saw a pale boy riding a giant monster dog thing right into me. I swear he appeared out of thin air! I can't believe the airport security won't let my razor blade (for drawing and self defense) through but let this huge war machine charge through the metal detectors! _

_The boy looks confused at the sighs that clearly stated signs around him, shouted "OUTSIDE M LOVE ENGLISH TEA N AUNT OW FOLLOW!" (**外M爱英茶N娜OW跟, or wai m ai in cha N ah ow gen, basically its "Why am I in China again" morphed into sounds that Xinyue misunderstood as Chinese) **in VERY accented and not making sense Chinese. He sounded frustrated. Being the perfect student council president I am, I had to go ask him if he needs help. He looks around my age, if he is going to transfer into my school, I have leave a good impression right? _

_"Oi! You don't ride giant dogs into airports!" I walked up to the boy, putting a mask of authority. _

_The boy looks confused, maybe he can't understand Chinese properly, "Sorry?" Why is he apologizing? Oh wait, its also a form of saying "can you please speak in what ever language I speak?"_

_Since Chinese is the most commonly spoken language in the world, I tried my luck with English - hey I never learned Spanish! - "Do you speak English?" I asked the boy. _

_He looked confused, if he speak Spanish, I don't care. I was just about to try my luck with French when he started laughing. Obviously laughing at my accent. _

_HOW DARE HE LAUGH AT MY ENGLISH?! I WAS THE BEST IN MY SCHOOL! I glared at him until he stopped. _

_"you don read mom be err an nee thing"** (its actually "you don't remember anything")** He said in a weird voice, while snapping his fingers, creating weird white mist, and disappeared. What did he say to me? I can't understand American English very well since I learned proper kind in school._

**_...hour later, back to present/where we left off..._**

I was wrapped in my thoughts about the weird boy until I remembered the not so cheerful mother that is still standing next to me.

"What's wrong mother?" I asked her,

"um... nothing much..." She said, looking like A LOT of things are bothering her

Even though my mother is perfect in almost everything, (cooking, piano, zheng instrument, violin, oil painting, sketching, computer graphics, academics etc.) she is definitely horrible at lying and figuring out lies.

I let the lie slip, after all, my mother has everything to worry about, she haven't come back to China for 3 years of course she's going to be worried if about the new Shanghai surrounding her.

"So hows school?" Mother asked me, changing the subject

"Class president for the seventh year running" I smiled at her, yup, I have been class president since first grade and still top of the class, even if that grouped me out of my classmates.

"YAY I'M SO PROUD OF YOU XINYUE!" Yup, this is my mother, as smart as she is, she is twice as innocent.

"But the seventh year is not over yet, so we can't say you will continue being class president..." My mother began...

When did she get so pessimistic? Mother always looked in the bright side of things. A thought formed in my head, a even older memory...

_"Mommy! Huggie!" I screamed on the top of my lungs when I was in first grade, and My mom had came back from America for the second time._

_"XINYUE YOU ARE ADORABLE! I'M SURE YOUR FATHER WOULD BE VERY PROUD OF YOU!"_

_"My father?"_

_"Yes, he had gone away because he is busy..."_

_"Like you?"_

_"Yes he is in America, but not quite, you will meet him by your thirteenth birthday kay?"_

_"Why when I'm thirteen? I want to see him now!"_

_"Um...It's not safe..."_

_"Why?"_

_"I wan't you to see him after the war's over..."_

_"What war?"_

_"I don't know..."_

_"Are you just trying to impress me?"_

_My mother smiled and walked towards my grandparents._

My thirteenth birthday is on September 11th, the exact date of the 911 event, I always found that to be ironic, four and a half months away.

"XINYUE I NEVER KNEW YOU MADE THE PAPERS!?" My mother exclaimed half excited, but a little horrified expression on her face for some reason...

Didn't I mention my life used to be perfect? The paper has a picture from a week ago after I won the district watercolor competition.

"Yes mom, I won 1st place in the piano competition in our district, and 3rd place for violin. I also won the district watercolor competition, badminton competition, and dancing competition. Also, my class won the city's award for having the top grades."

These should not have surprised my mother, she won those contests in her day too...

" I NEVER KNEW THEY WOULD MAKE THE PAPERS!"

I rolled my eyes, "Of course they'll make the papers, and some are on TV too."

Mother's eyes widened, but she quickly hid it with: "THAT'S WONDERFUL!" that has the meaning of "THAT'S HORRIBLE" screaming out at me.

Something is definitely wrong...lets test my theory...

"Mom should I take the test to be in the top boarding high school in Shanghai? I am able to skip another grade by now. Its also a wonderful school except for I can't leave the school once I enter."

"NO!"

Yup, theory proven, just to make sure...

"Why not?"

"Um... do you want to come with me to America?"

I already know what she was going to say, but just having my worst nightmare being said is a lot different than theory, I hid my disappointment.

"When?"

"Right after your grandparents agree!"

Wait, didn't they say visa takes about two months to get approved?

As if reading my mind, my mom told me: "Sorry for keeping it from you Xinyue, but you are an american citizen."

THAT'S WHY THE STUPID TOP MIDDLE SCHOOL WON'T ACCEPT ME! Why can't she tell me sooner so I could apply the correct paperworks for that school?

Wait...this means I have to live in America from now on.

"Shouldn't I finish my seventh grade year first?"

"No Xinyue, I'm sorry, but its wisest for you to go as soon as possible."

Does her response have anything to do with what just happened? But she couldn't have seen the weird boy!

As we were driven back to our home, my mother and grandparents are having a heated conversation in their home dialect, which I have no idea what.

The best way to have a secret conversation while yelling at each other: speak in a dialect no one knows.

But I did catch somethings in their convos though...

"...father..."

"...unsafe..."

"...better this way..."

"ARGH WHY CANT WE TAKE LESSONS ON DIALECTS OF CHINA OTHER THAN ENGLISH?!"

Wait did I just shout that out loud?

So I was confused the whole time I HATE BEING CONFUSED! Until all three of my guardians came with the decision that I will go to America.

Here I am waiting for three hours and finally got on the plane - Y THEY SO SLOW?! - and missing the time I wasted/am going to waste. Hopefully America would be better than I think.

**Hi its Rina tan! (I have a habit of changing the last sound of my name)**

**Hope you like this, "The Lightning Thief" was the first english book I had ever read and improved my english - A LOT - so I had to thank Rick Riordan for that, even if I read it 5 years ago (right after I came to America) Please tell me if you like it! Or ask me questions and give me suggestions on what you think will happen. **

**Also, since I am horrible at english, I'm wondering how to get a BETA reader, please tell me!**


	2. I Want To Go Back!

**2. Xinyue**

If I could turn back time, I would - right now. The plane being in the air was the worst thing I've ever experienced (except for the time when i found a spider in my pencil case).

I hated heights!

I simply could not stand the feeling of hovering thousands of feet in the air without any form of support from above, and constantly feeling as though any moment now, I would plummet down to certain death. Looking out of the window at the distant ground did nothing to settle my nerves either. I gulped, my heart fluttering nervously.

Well, actually, Mom was having a much worse time than me, so I guess shouldn't complain. She was mortally afraid of heights too. She sat beside me, fists clenched tight, eyes closed, as though praying hard. But honestly,_why in the world did she get window seats if she was also so scared of heights?!_

Clouds drifted by. Some were the thick, fluffy manifestations of cotton wool. Others were the thin sheets of mist that skimmed by the window. Well, on the bright side, I thought, at least I could try sketching them.

I only managed to catch up on a few winks of sleep right before the flight attendant's crisp voice woke everyone up. The seat was bumpy and I was not at all used to sleeping sitting up. I already missed by bed back in China, with the comfortable sheets and the familiar scent of my pillow. I so desperately did not want to leave my safe haven and travel across the world to a new, unfamiliar place with new, unfamiliar people. Would they reject me? Would they straight away mark me out as an outcast? What would I do then? With these uncomfortable thoughts buzzing in my ear like irksome flies, I only got that few seconds of precious sleep in 24 hours.

I had thought that security would be much looser with Americans than Asians, and security would only take a few minutes.

I could not have been more wrong.

We took what seemed like an eternity to get through security. I was so tired, it felt like everything around me was spinning. I could not see or think straight. A hot shower would be so heavenly right now. A beautiful warm bath, with a soft bed to crawl into afterward...

I found myself getting frustrated with the security officers. Was it really that hard to simply hurry up? The passengers had just endured a day-long flight - the least they could do was to speed up the security process!

After an hour, I heard the security officer call, "Mrs. and Miss Lie, please come through the security."

I tried to stifle a giggle. _Lie_ sounded like the Chinese word for goose bumps. Who would honestly name themselves after goose bumps?

Another hour passed. The officer called again, "Alice - yes that's right, Alice Lie, please come through security."

At least eight females looked up.

"Why does Alice have to be such a common name?" the officer grumbled.

Then he called once more.

"ALICE LIE AND X-IN-YU-E LIE COME THROUGH SECURITY RIGHT NOW!"

It finally dawned on me that he was calling for my mother and I! I found myself face heating up to the roots of my hair. We had been so drowsy that we did not even realize something as stupid as this!

I guess Chinese names are really hard for Americans.

This could be interesting.

...

Here is something about my mom: she could not have been more serious about wanting me to catch up to studies. I mean, she already signed me up for school and I have one Sunday to change my sleep cycle (theres a 13 hour difference for god's sake!) and get my books ready for school the very next day, the start of term. The whole thing felt kind of unreal to me. Well, I guess I still have not properly absorbed the fact that I was in America now. America! It seemed so far away to me back when I was in China, and now, _bam_, I was here. I wondered if I would fit in in the school here.

All of a sudden I was praying, praying so hard for school here to be good, to be great. I wanted so badly for my new classmates to treat me like one of them. I wanted them to accept me, no matter what kind of grades I got. Something I had learned in China was that the blessing of good grades came with a curse. I remembered so clearly, getting back that math paper, the only one with the glorious red 100 on it, grinning broadly, whole-heartedly expecting my classmates to cheer and congratulate me. But instead, I had been greeted by forced smirks and sarcastic words of "Look, you're perfect, aren't you miss class president?"

But well, that aside, one thing I'm excited about? I would go to 8th grade instead of 7th, like I had hoped! I thought about teachers smiling down at me classmates applauding in admiration - "Good job, Xinyue! 12 years old and in eighth grade!"

However, I also just realized how absolutely terrible my English was.

Here was how my first few minutes at my new home went.

Friendly Neighbor #1: "Good afternoon! You must be Alice's daughter! You're so cute!

However, to me it sounded like: Good after moon! You mustard compare Alice's dog ter you are so Q-T!"

I stupidly told the old lady: "Its still day time, the moon is not out yet." Perhaps it was my tiredness, but it seemed like quite a reasonable reply at the time.

However, all the old lady understood was: "eats till day tim, the moon eats note ow yet."

Disappointment washed through me like a tidelwave. I immediately started to wonder how I would manage survive in 8th grade. I twirled my hair in my fingers, agitated. Would my classmates erupt into laughter the moment I opened my mouth and said the first word? I bit my lip and shut my eyes tight, trying to block out that image. I took a deep breath.

...

I was woken by the shrill sound of my mother's yelling.

"XINYUE ARE YOU MURDERED IN YOUR SLEEP?! YOU'VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR 24 HOURS STRAIGHT AND WE ONLY HAVE FIVE HOURS TILL ALL THE STORES CLOSE DOWN TO BUY YOUR SCHOOL SUPPLIES!"

I sighed groggily and turned over on my bed. My mom was one of the most forgetful person I had ever known.

"Let me see the list," I mumbled.

My mom showed me the long slip of paper with all the things required for school.

What I saw make no sense at all. The list required 6 dozen pencils, I later learned a dozen means 12, why can't they just say they want 72 pencils? And why in the world would I need 72 pencils for the less than 30 days left of school?

An Inch ruler - isn't centimeters the usual measurement used by scientists?

Three pink pearl erasers - who made erasers out of pearl? Do pearl even erase?

Charcoal pencils - as far as I know, charcoals were used to keep a fireplace going. wait no, I think charcoal is also the thing I liked to draw with...

Why were all the supplies so strange?

I refused to buy half of the supplies because I have my preferred school supplies - fountain pens were way better than regular ball point. I also refused to buy erasers that won't erase. If I really had to stay in this foreign place, I damn well was going to at least use my own things from my own home.

As I walked along with my mother, I also took a good look at the people here. Back in China, I was used to crowds of dark hair and petite features, punctuated by the occasional dyed-blonde hair of rebellious teenage girls. I hadn't really thought about how American citizens would look like. I was intrigued, especially by the ladies with naturally streaked hair, and also how they seemed so much more... open than Asians.

Finally, my mom took me to a restaurant called "Panda Express".

It was an American version of Chinese food. I was quite thankful that it was possible to find Chinese food in almost anywhere in the world, so I could be reminded of home wherever I went, but I was surprised at how different the Chinese food tasted here! My favourite meat buns just did not taste the same. I felt a pang of sadness. I thought about living here - for how long? My mother had not told me yet. I sighed inwardly. Well, I thought, I would just have to try my best to adapt to this new environment. If my mother had insisted on me coming here, I guess she must have had a pretty good reason.

I would just have to trust my mother.

While eating, my mom explained my new school to me.

The most disappointing thing about this school? There was no student council, or competitions. However, it at least had an orchestra that accepted violinists and a band that accepted pianists. My mother had a pained expression. I guess she did not think much of the musical groups, but it was all I had, and I would never, for the life of me, give up my instruments.

Oh and did I mention I couldn't have a piano because we are not currently living in one place? My mother said that the school had a music studio that the students could use for practice after school, and I guessed that was fine, but it still was not the same.

I stared into the last dregs of my drink. So much had changed, and is still going to change. I so dearly hoped that it would be for the better, not the worse.

...

As we got home, my mother dug out a book from the suitcase, and handed it to me. The title emblazoned on the cover was "The Lightning Thief".

"It's a really great book, Xinyue! Try reading it, even if you get confused," she told me.

"Why? You never gave me English books before, mom."

"Well... I... I think... I mean, it's important for you to improve your English, Xinyue! And... Ah... Just read it for fun, won't you?"

She did not meet my eye, and I had a feeling she was not telling me something. Usually, the things my mom tells me to do had a purpose, I wonder what use this book has.

Perhaps it was just me, but I had a feeling that she had another purpose other than just reading for fun.

**Yay I wrote another chapter! and btw i have a beta reader now I'm so happy! Her name is Sonata Appassionata, or her penname is that. She is amazing! I'm pretty sure my chapter would suck if not for her so I really want to thank her!**

**Some of the airport parts are based on real facts - I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING NO ONE CAN GET MY NAME RIGHT THROUGH SECURITY! (Well its my fault for stubbornly not changing my name, but its hilarious to watch them struggle!) though its kinda exaggerated.**

**Oh and I am really happy that in last chapter, Mr. Invincible pointed to me that flying a plane from Shanghai to Chicago is definitely NOT in an hour, so I changed the time in this chapter - sorry I don't know how to edit chapters**

**Please review! I really want to know what others think of my story ^.^**


	3. My Ultra Annoying Life

**3. Xinyue: My Ultra Annoying Life**

Ever heard of dyslexia? I thought I had it, or maybe it was just the stress of coming to America.

In China, my English was the best in the class - but the words in that annoying book my mother gave had letters that changed every five seconds! Reading it just gave me a headache as I desperately tried to make sense of the shifting alphabets and swirling sentences. After two hours of trying, I had just managed to finish the first chapter. Even so, I found that I did not really understand what the whole thing meant. Something about a water fountain? A monster of some sort? A pen which suddenly became sword?'

WHAT?

I swallowed nervously, biting my fingernails. Was I losing my edge?

Of course, there was no way I would tell my mother. She would make a huge fuss about the whole thing, a fuss that I would never need. I probably would be dragged to the doctor or something.

Being the mother that she was, my mother completely forgot the fact that it was very difficult for Americans to pronounce my name correctly. However, I liked that fact.

"Why don't you tell everyone to call you Yue? Its still a cute name! And it means the moon!"

"But without the Xin, it won't have the family sound!"

Yeah, I was very picky about my name, even if it was not even my real name. On my passport, it has some random letters that looks greek to me, or it might just be the 'dyslexia' problem. Weird how I didn't have dyslexia until AFTER I came to America.

I guess I also had horrible memories.

...

"The Story of Xinyue's Childhood" - or not.

There once was a girl named Jinyi - my mom - who got a scholarship to go to school in America. The problem: 8 different schools accepted her - or so I was told. I always live in the shadow of my mother's perfect life. In the end she chose School of Visual Arts, in New York. (My mother's dream was to be an artist)

She went there 13 years ago and met my father, whom she would never talk to me about, and give birth to me. My mom won't tell me anything else about the childhood that I don't remember I had except for the fact that I spent my first two years in America - and then when we went back to China, she left me with my grandparents because she move around too much.  
I tried so desperately hard to recall memories of my father, but as much as I tried, I could not seem to remember him. My mom always say that he was a great man, a kind man who would have loved to watch me grow up, but she also said that he could not do that. He had to leave. He had to go. It was not his fault. But leave to do what? My mother never gave me a straight answer for that. Every time I tried to ask her, she would get a faraway look in her eyes, and she would change the subject, telling me to go practice the violin, or do some homework.

Why didn't I just search my history online? Surely there's information about my father in the government's databases. The problem is, my family doesn't believe in technology. I guess the last few computers I used all ended up broken or blocked. In the computer labs in school, it was always my computer that got blocked or jammed, or simply hanged and did not didn't seem to like me, and the feeling was mutual.

Now, where was I? Oh, my father, he was definitely not Chinese, because I had eyes of - I don't know what color. Greenish grayish brownish eyes, that I never really understood. It was always something that my friends and teachers in school teased me about. The Chinese who was not really Chinese, the American who was not really American.

The one time I asked my grandmother about my father, she told me, "Your father is busy, but it is his fate to visit you one day."

Whatever that meant.

...

My school was weird.

Home room was called advisory, which lasted 5 min per day. Really, I thought. What was the point?

We recited the "Pledge of Allegiance", which made no sense to me whatsoever. I was an atheist. As far as I knew, my mother and grandparents were too. I did not believe in God. I wondered what would happen if I just stubbornly stood to one side and not said anything. I know my mom would expect better of me, but sometimes its stressful to always be a model for others.

I got new classmates with every class - as if just 20 isn't hard enough I had to get to know at least 150. Every single one of them asked my name. Right now I am VERY tired of 'What's your name?" repeated over and over again.

Everyone called me X-in yua, or some other weird sound they made up, which made it impossible to tell if they were calling me, or some other person.

The other people in the orchestra I joined had all played for at least a year long than I had, and I found it quite difficult to keep up with the pace of everything. I was used to being a soloist, and everything was do different when all of a sudden, we had to learn to play "as an ensemble". The piece wasn't hard, what's hard is to be together with everyone else and look up at the conductor.

There was Chinese foreign language class - I had to take it to learn English because the school didn't have an English Second Language teacher yet - and the teacher could not read Chinese. I thought teachers have to be at least 10 times better than their students!

I was also pretty surprised at the content of the lessons, too. China was quite a competitive place for students. To us, exams meant almost everything. We learnt things way beyond the syllabus, just so we could hope to have an edge in the examinations. The curriculum itself was rigorous too. Not only were tests and graded quizzes given every week, we also had projects and research papers to do as well. I was therefore surprised when I found that the 8th graders here were still doing pre-algebra. I learned that four years ago!

Well, perhaps I could just treat it as revision.

My problem with America? I can't understand what the students are saying to me unless they write it down and GRR WHY DO I HAVE DYSLEXIA FIVE YEARS AFTER I LEARNED ENGLISH?! Which made communication even harder. At least I won't mistake cat for sat now...

I was also told I had ADHD by the school councilor. Basically it meant that I could not sit still for long. Well, I guess that was true. I really could not sit still. Trying to remain in one position for long periods of time made my head swim and my limbs twitch, itching for movement.

Many nights, I also stayed awake, unable to sleep because of the whirls of totally random images and thought my hyperactive brain ran through all the time. I also vaguely remembered an occasion when someone in China had also diagnosed me with that, too. I wondered why my mother had never explained this to me.

Well, I was guessing that ADHD was also the reason I saw a person with one eye in the middle of his forehead.

At least I had made a friend. She is the first true friend I've ever had, even if I only know her for a week. In China, people either think I am too perfect to be a good friend or I am too good at everything to approach me.

I had not really got to know the other people in the same classes as me. Most of them gave me sidelong glances in class, as though wondering how much I was worth. I found it rather annoying, as though they were constantly judging me, scrutinizing my flaws. Well, I would show them what I could do.

Well, back to my friend now. Her name was Willow, and she was the only person who believed me when I saw the one-eyed man. When I told her about it, she looked at me with a grave expression and said, "yeah, I know," as if it were something much more serious. However, when I tried talking about it later, she denied she ever knew what I was talking about. She would avoid my gaze and develop sudden interests in the plants around her, then go "I... I don't think anybody has one eye in the middle of his head, Xinyue."

It never fooled me, though, being student president for six years taught me many things about how to read people.

Since I had much less homework here than in China, I took the time to read the strange book my mom had given me. Why was she suddenly interested in fantasy all of a sudden? My mother was usually the type of person who preferred world renowned classics. She never really liked these so called "unrealistic" stories about "people flying about randomly".

However, as I read on, I started to develop a feeling that I was somehow related to the story. Afterwards, when ever I opened the book, I have migraines, making reading impossible, so I shoved it into my closet and forgot about it.

The boring week passed, and I barely learned anything - just re-going through all the topics I learnt before, anyway. Well, on the bright side, at least I could understand what the people are saying to me now.

I started spending a lot of time with Willow because I had nothing much to do. She was quiet and shy, and got nervous often, but I thought she was nice. She had stringy brown hair, bright green eyes, and wear a green dress. However, she seemed to have a lot of homework, even when we were in all the same classes together. I wondered why she did not just finish all her homework in the free time at school, as I tried to do most of the time.

Another week passed. The book shoved deeper in my closet, but the quote from the first chapter kept on coming back to me... "If you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you." I was not all sure why, but this quote just made me as uneasy as I could be.

As if on cue, my English teacher had told us we were doing a unit on Greek and Latin for the next three weeks of school. Everyone cheered. I was not entirely impressed, however. What was so good about two worlds that were almost completely gone?

Of course, as usual, I had no idea how much I was wrong...

Well, one good thing about this unit? We were going to go to the National Hellenic Museum for a field trip the following week.

And for one reason or another, this just started to remind me of a particular part in the book I just read...

**^.^**

**Does anyone know if its possible to put drawings on fan fiction?**

**Also, does anyone like the picture I put up?**

**PLEASE REVIEW I REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT OTHERS THINK!**


	4. The Day Everything Went Wrong

**Hi! Hopefully this had not bored my readers to sleep yet. And I'm really happy Ivy (my Beta reader) helped me with this!**

**Please review! I needed some more inspiration, and wanted to make this story more interesting. Feel free to ask questions or just post random comments.**

**Oh and I don't own POJ since I can't even understand English when it's published. **

4. Xinyue: The Day Everything Went Wrong

The Friday before the last day of school, we had our field trip to the National Hellenic Museum. Of course, we had to do worksheets in groups as we went from exhibit to exhibit. I hated worksheets, but of course, I couldn't say that.

For as long as I could remember, I always had to be the perfect model. In grades, sports, music and art, I had to be the best in everything. My mother had extremely high expectations, expectations that I was always terrified I could not live up to. What would she say if I failed my piano exam or did badly for math? I could not bear to even think about it. As far as I remembered, I was always the one constantly fighting to be on the top. I had to make my mother proud. I just had to! I needed to see her smile at me, tell me that I had done a good job. Just the thought of her disappointed look that might be directed at me if I failed in something made me want to claw my own eyes out. I chased for better grades.

Because of this, I did not have much space left for the company of friends. I remembered being overjoyed to have Willow as a friend, but I was also terrified that I might be the one to ruin the relationship. I loved good grades, I really did. Exams had never been one of my greatest concerns. I lived for the moment of glory as I set eyes on my satisfying marks smiling up at me from the lovely white paper. However, there was a terrible flip side to it, the hurricane after the sunshine.

"_See, Xinyue, you're perfect."_

_"Seriously! Is there anything you aren't good at?"_

_"Huh, maybe you aren't even human."_

Sometimes, I would hear whispers behind my back:

_"Why does Xinyue always look down on us?"_

_"Does she even have a weakness?"_

_"I wished I was like her!"_

Exams were always like a sort of line for me and my friendships. My heart would always turn over at the thought of the fact that my friends might not last past the end of year exams. It all made me disappointed and angry. Angry at them for being so competitive - did one of life's rules state that you must do badly in everything to get friends? Angry at myself for being like this. Angry that I had to do well to please my mother, yet had to do badly to please my friends.

But, well, one thing about me was that I was absolutely horrible with group projects.

Teachers always singles me out of a group to be a leader, or do the best in everything, or pay attention in class. I was hoping- just a little - that it would all change in America. It didn't happen.

Sure, even if my English speaking was terrible, my teacher had already appointed my to be the head of my group for the field trip. Geez, couldn't I have a break once in a while? But the natural respond I had trained for teachers kicked in. "Yes, of course Mrs. Johnson," I had answered smoothly. However, never did I realize that students in America were competitive as well.

Things were not any better when I was grouped with the worst possible people. Willow was not even going on the trip! I felt like pretending to be sick and backing out of it entirely, but I knew I could not. I know life hated me, but I never expected it would be like this. Wait, take that back, it was going to get much worse.

On the bus, our bus chaperone - Mrs. Johnson - had assigned me the job of handling my group mates and left, leaving me with these impossible people.

Mrs. Johnson was not a very kind English teacher, but at least no one dared misbehave in her class. Her glare is one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen, like the type that could turn you to stone. Not in the Medusa sort of way, but the she's-glaring-at-me-her-eyes-are-shooting-sparks-I -better-behave-now kind of way. Well, one of the most terrifying things I had seen except maybe for the time I saw some demon near my piano class - no one believed me of course - but she looked a lot like that thing... Ok, lets just say I never thought of that.

I looked helplessly at the six people behind me: the three rowdy boys were having a wrestling match, and the four girls were comparing makeup and reading fashion magazines. Nobody was even looking at my direction. There were a total of seven of us in total. A cold chill tingled up my spine. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. All of a sudden, I remembered something my grandma told me when I was little...

"_Xinyue."_

_"What, Grandma?"_

_"Remember this: No matter what you do, do NOT be in groups of seven."_

_"Why?"_

_"I don't know, but it is important."_

_"Ok Grandma!"_

Had my Grandma foreseen this day? But it did not seem right. I didn't know how, but a deep feeling at the back of my mind told me the day had not come.

I was jolted back from my trip to the past in my mind by one of the girls - Madison - sneering at me.

"If its not Miss Perfect leading us! Even if you scored the top scores on the English test, you know your accent is the worst."

I didn't respond, I had been prepared for something like this. Madison was the school's most talented student until I transferred. Instead, I ignored her.

"You know, if you actually put on make up, you would actually look pretty." She continued, while throwing a fashion magazine at me. It bounced off my shoulder.

"But, you are so helpless you would use makeup as paint!" She laughed glamorously, throwing her head back. Her friends snickered, batting their eyes annoyingly at me.

Letting her witness me painting in the art studio had been one of the worst mistakes in my life. I continued to ignore her. I had to keep calm, I told myself. I could not let someone like her get on my nerve. A scholar had once said something along the lines of "a smart person would wait for revenge". However, hopefully I would not come to taking revenge on her at all.

I should not have looked out the window of the bus so much. If my mind hadn't been remembering the past so much, I could have noticed the three boys having a fight. When I noticed, it was too late. One of the boys had a bleeding nose, one's face has a scratch across the left side, while the other one had a black eye. I stared, exasperated. Why did boys honestly have to fight so much?

Thankfully, there was a first aid kit on the bus, but how did they hurt themselves so quickly? They had just been wrestling, that was all. How did they end up like this? When I asked them what happened, all the reply I got was along the lines of "I don't know", which was not much of an answer at all.

Meanwhile, Madison and her friends were snickering at me. "looks like little Miss Perfect messed up!"

Someday, I was going to kill her! Wait, I told myself again. I had to calm down or else my grandmother was going yell at me again if she heard about me losing control in school. Even if she was half a world away, she could still yell at me through phones.

Since we arrived at the museum late, the teachers agreed to let the school have a picnic near Buckingham Fountain before we spend the rest of the day in the museum. Unluckily for me, we had to sit with our groups.

The warmongering boys are still with us. Well, their injuries would heal quickly. I didn't care about them just yet. My worst problem right then was Madison. Seriously, I thought, studying her petite form. Could this girl at least save sometime to eat? She's skinny as a stick!

Were fashion and looks the only things American girls cared about?

I was trying to enjoy my time eating cookies and feeding bread to the seagulls - I know, eating cookies for lunch isn't the healthiest thing to do, but they tasted good, when Miss Annoying came up to me with her mob of sneering friends. "Ooh! Look at Miss Perfect! What is she eating?"

I rolled my eyes, she was going to attack my love of sweet stuff, as usual, talking about how too much of it would turn me into an overweight whale, whatever. Besides, she really needed to learn how to properly insult people.

"If you have eyes for something other than make up, you would know that what I'm eating is a cookie. And speaking of bad pronunciation, you can't even say my name."

The expression on her face was priceless. For a second, she seemed at a lost for words. Wait, did my sentence come out in a perfect American accent? I almost laughed out loud until I remembered the rule my Grandpa made me memorize when I was little.

_"Xinyue!"_

_"What Grandpa?"_

_"Do you know what rules are?"_

_"Of course!"_

_"Then memorize these, they will protect you in the future."_

_"Why Grandpa?"_

_"Your Grandma had a feeling it would help you"_

The third rule was "don't get into fights".

Well, guess I broke that rule.

But before Madison could start talking, I walked away. I needed to get a grip on myself. Madison and her gang might be annoying, but that was their problem. The rules my Grandpa had given me had protected me before, but was really irritating to walk away from a fight. It looked so cowardly and loserish, but I could not get involved in something like this. I leaned against the fence next to the fountain, blankly staring at the sparkling water.

Madison came over.

"What is it this time, Little Miss Perfect? Depressed now, are we?"

She annoyed me for a good five minutes. But just as she was about to say something else, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, she was suddenly sitting in the middle of the fountain, completely drenched.

Her face wore an expression of utter shock. Her flawless hair was plastered to the sides of her face, makeup streaming down her cheeks in little rivulets of sticky color. She stared at me, horrified.

"Xinyue pushed me into the fountain!" Madison screamed, pointing one of her talon-like glossed nails at me. "She pushed me!"

I didn't know what she was talking about! I hadn't even touch her! I had just been minding my own business, and she had been the one to come over and annoy me.

Whispers rippled through the crowd of students that ha gathered.

"_How did she get in?" "Did you see the water?" "Like she flew..."_

Then, Mrs. Johnson came at me, looking _really_ scary. And I really meant, _really_.

"Xinyue, you should come with me during the museum tour, and your friend Madison would lead your group."

I braced myself, biting my lip. It was so unfair! I had never so much as touched Madison! I had no idea what had happened, but I was sure that it had nothing to do with me. What was Mrs Johnson going to do to me? Uh-oh, if this was a detention, I was dead.

Grandpa's rule number four: Do not get into detentions.

If this teacher don't kill me, I'm sure my Grandpa would if he heard about me breaking two major rules in one day.

As I followed Mrs. Johnson into the museum, she took a turn somewhere, and we were suddenly in a totally empty place inside a crowded tourist attraction. I blinked. How did that happen?

"Unforgivable, honey," She started, looking more and more like the demon I saw near my piano class. Her lips were curled in an almost inhuman sneer. Her voice was falsely sweet, like a pretty little jar of poisoned honey she was going to pour down my throat.

"Have we met before I came to America?"

Goosebumps rose on my skin as she leaned closer to me. Instinctively, I stepped backwards. She was _definitely_ that old lady demon I had seen.

"You have quite a good memory Miss, to remember me from four years ago."

"So you _were_ that creepy person no one saw except for me!"

This creepy teacher has been the one who had made my grandmother send me to therapy! Wait, I think I should worry about something other than this...

"Why - why were you stalking me in China?!"

"No need to explain my dear, because you are going to die either way."

"So you are a demon!" I didn't know if I was relieved or scared. For the last few years, everyone around me had thought I was cracking under the stress, and because of the things I saw, I almost believed so myself. But now, at least I had proof that it wasn't just me.

But demons weren't supposed to exist, were they?

Then the already creepy English teacher grew fangs and leather wings and I realized something else...

"WHEN DID YOU LEARN HOW TO SPEAK CHINESE?!"

Yup, this teacher was speaking Chinese to me without me noticing. No. Hold on. Wasn't I supposed to worry about more urgent things?

The monster in front of me was something I had drawn before for extra credit, and the same teacher that was now towering over me once praised me on the likeness of my drawing. The demon was a... A... Furor? No, not furor. Fury! Maybe Furies? I could not remember. English was certainly annoying! But right now I didn't care.

I had to find out how to survive this.

Then, like a lightning bolt, a flashback pierced through my mind.

_"Mommy, your necklace is pretty!"_

_My mom smiled. "It has the power to protect."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"You'll know eventually, I promise."_

Wait. Where had the necklace gone to? I didn't remember seeing it since...

Snap out of it! I mentally screamed at myself. What was wrong with me today? There was a monster right in front of me, dripping fangs bared in a snarl, and I was worrying about what had become of my mother's necklace?

Then, something small and heavy fell onto my hand. I did not bother to check what it was. Whatever it was, I swung it as hard as I could at the monster in front of me.

Then I realized that the thing was shiny, sharp and long. A sword. No, but not just any sword. It was my Grandpa's sword back China. It hit my English teacher in the chest. With an ear-splitting screech, she exploded into dust.

All that remained of her were dirty sand that is slowly vaporizing, and the sword that changed into my mother's necklace.


	5. I Messed with A Poison Spitting Hydra

** 5. Xinyue: I Messed With a Poison Spitting Hydra**

I stood, there, breathing hard for a moment, still stunned. I kept standing like an idiot, alone in the vacant room, until an old blond lady in an old-fashioned dress came and started fussing over me.

"There you are Xinyue! How did you get here? Didn't I tell everyone to not go anywhere without my permission? I thought you were responsible! Madison said you just ran off without telling anyone!"

This old lady reminded me of overly stressed teachers. I had never seen her before. Who was she? And how on earth did she know my name?

"Um... Who are you?"

"Now, now, Miss Li, don't play dumb with me! I am your English teacher Mrs. Deer! I have been teaching you for the past month and certainly know you are intelligent enough to remember my name!"

Since when had I had a teacher named Mrs. Deer? As far as I was concerned, the only English teacher I had in America was Mrs. Johnson, until she blew up. I was still in shock about that. Had it really happened? Was I simply just hallucinating? Did my crackly old English teacher really just turn into a bloodthirsty Fury and attack me with fangs and claws and...

Well, before I could figure out what had happened, I had to play this carefully to make sure I didn't have to visit the neuropathy doctor again...

"I am sorry Mrs. Deer, I... I just had a flash back of my times in China, that's all."

Reasonable, right?

She looked at me weirdly, like she didn't buy my answer. Come to think of it, it really was rather ridiculous. Who ended up in some strange stray room just because of a flashback? But it was hard to make up a reasonable answer to something totally weird! Besides, I was still horrified.

You need to learn to calm down Xinyue. You don't need to visit the psychologist again for the eighth time. I clenched my fists, trying to regain control.

I shot Mrs Deer a stressful look, which must have earned some sympathy. She softened. "I'm sorry, Xinyue. Coming to America must have been so hard on you! Don't worry, though. Your English has been improving really quickly!"

Well, if she thought that, I guess I would just have to go with it. After all, it was a lot easier than making something up than forgetting it.

"Yeah..." I answered, hoping not to give away anything. Thoughts still whirled in my head. Slowly, a plan began to form...

On the way back to school, Madison kept on taunting me about how "Little Miss Perfect got lost". I guess Mrs. Deer felt sorry for me and told everyone that I got lost in the museum. I felt rather angry at that. Did she really have to make me look like a pathetic emotional loner?

And since when had our English teacher been Mrs Deer?

Well, I could not afford to worry about that now. My current problem was Madison.

"Do you want to fall into a fountain again?" I asked her. I inwardly smiled. My English was indeed getting better. Slowly, I found that I was beginning to lose the awkward Chinese accent, and gradually putting on the cool, posh American one. Yeah, I thought. I _did_ live in America for the first two years of my life, after all.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, confused.

Weird. Now that I look more carefully, her fancy clothing that was soaked through less than an hour ago was now perfectly dry, like the fountain accident had never happened. I frowned. Was I really going crazy? No, Xinyue, a voice nagged at me. Carry out your plan.

"Oh, nothing, I just wanted to throw you down Niagara Falls," I told her. She was getting _really_ annoying.

Before she could say anything else, the school bus screeched to a stop.

"What's happening?" Many students asked.

I craned my neck to look.

What I saw nearly made me scream.

We were being attacked by a ten-headed monster, which was blowing green poisonous acid all over the place. Where the poison hit, I saw the asphalt on the road melt into black gunk. Steam hissed into the air as the hydra bared its fangs. I remembered , how she imploded into yellow powder, it would be nice if this thing could...

I stared in shock. Was this really real?

"Everyone! Get off the bus!" I yelled on top of my lungs. We had to evacuated from a bus once in China (long story) not so long ago, and thankfully I still remembered the instructions my teachers gave me.

Even the teachers listened. Jeez, I thought they practice bus-evacuation drills in America! I had no idea what everyone else saw, but they all had the sense to flood to the exits. Students screamed, pushing each other to get to the front. Teachers yelled incoherently. The driver was nowhere insight, maybe he got out first, or maybe he just got incinerated by the monster. The whole place dissolved into chaos. I guess drills are not the same when you have a enormous hissing monster in front of you.

As the last person got into safety, the whole bus exploded from the acid in a cloud of greenish-black fumes. I gagged, all the wind knocked out of me. Please, I prayed. Please don't let the weird snake head monster turn towards us...

But of course, luck hated me.

When the scaly dragon/snake thing turned, all of its heads made eye contact with me. Its emerald eyes gleamed with intelligence and hate, dark voids that would swallow me whole. Just its gaze sent a paralysing chill rippling through me.

At that moment, I knew. Like Mrs. Johnson, the monster was sent after me. But why?

Perfect timing. The necklace I had been holding a death grip on suddenly disappeared. Even if I did have horrible fortunes, it was still cruel to lose your only chance of survival the second you knew the monster in front of you was going to attack.

Then, something flashed through my mind. I remembered what this thing was called.

A hydra, from Greek mythology.

I cursed. Great, now I would be killed by something that should not even exist.

The Hydra blew acid at me. I leaped aside just in time to avoid the column of green poison. Where I had been standing just a split second ago, was a burning chunk of dissolving asphalt . Students screamed. Dimly I registered them running around in a panic, faces white with shock and fear.

But no. I needed to keep my focus. How on earth do I kill this thing?

Acid... Maybe I could use it to kill the hydra.

Maybe I could distract it...

I circled the monster for a while. It snarled at me, fangs dripping. I did my best not to scramble away like a mouse, or show any of the throbbing fear that rang through my ears. It spat poison again, and I dodged. I studied it carefully. How could I bring it down?

Just as the jaws of the head closest to me started to open, I did one of the stupidest things in history.

Instead of running away - something a sane person would do, I ran towards the monster as it began to blow poison.

Using one of the confused heads as a jump board, I leaped over the creature. One of its other heads whipped around, following me.

The acid did what it was supposed to do. The monster's heads were clearly not thinking the same thing. The first head blew poison towards me, just as the second head was turning. It scorched the second head. As the third spat, it melted three curious heads trying to see what's happening.

Four down, six to go, I slowly counted. Could I afford to try the same strategy again?

Apparently, this Hydra didn't learn its lesson, because it made the same mistake again. This time, three more heads got melted into stumps that didn't reform.

With only three heads left, I couldn't use the same strategy. I had used the monster's inability to move well to my advantage, but now it was gone, and I had to come up with a plan quickly before the furious monster killed me.

My brain that had made such a brilliant plan before refused to think. Panic bubbled inside me as the beast turned toward me, all three remaining heads dripping and snarling. Think! I told myself. Concentrate!

But the only thing I thought of was: Run!

I ran, dodging acid with every step, I hurtled back the way I had come, not caring where I would end up at, as long as it was far, far away from this monster. I needed to get away! I needed to survive! My thoughts dissolved. All I could think of was _forward_. I had to get away before the monster killed me!

Then, a silver car pulled up, right next to the Hydra. I silently cursed. Whichever idiot who was driving the car really should notice where she parked! Now, innocent people were going to get hurt because of me. _Stay in the car!_ I wanted to yell. _Don't get out!_

Just as I was opening my mouth, the car door opened. and a woman stepped out.

My heart froze.

It was my mother.

Before I could register my shock, she pointed a stick at the monster and shouted something I couldn't make out. Bright flames danced across the Hydra, and it disintegrated to dust.

I gaped. What had just happened?

So far, I had been attacked by my English teacher who had turned into a half bat Fury and tried to kill me. Someone I had never met before had told me she had been teaching me English for the past month. My bus had burned down. A poison-spitting _hydra _had tried to kill me, and my mother, the one who had brought me up and I had known all my life, could summon flames.

Was I crazy?

**I DON'T OWN POJ! forgot to do that for a while. oh AND I BOUGHT THE HOUSE OF HADES I'M SO HAPPY! I begged my mom forever till she bought it for me.**

**Anyways to answer your question Ivy, I wanted Xinyue's mom to have magical powers for no reason at all.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! I wanted to know what other's think about my story and how I can improve it. **

**Also, question: Should I write in someone else's POV sometimes?**


	6. And so My Training Begins!

**6. ****And So My Training Begins!**

"M... M... MOTHER?!"

I literally yelled in shock at the lady now standing in the middle of monster dust, seemingly not noticing the scream of sirens behind me.

My mother - who had just happened to be good at monster fighting - gave me an I'll-tell-you-later look. She looked really frightened. Her hair was swept all over her face. Her face was slightly flushed, and I saw her hands trembling. Despite all that, she managed to walk up to the confused group of students and teachers still running about beside the wreckage of the bus.

"Hi," she said. Her voice quivered a little. She took a deep breath, and steadied herself. "I am Xinyue's mother, and I am going to pick her up, if you don't mind, Mrs J- I mean Mrs. Deer." My mom said, with the kind of nervous authority I had when I had to confront someone.

So there _was_ a Mrs. Johnson! Mom probably won't admit calling her that later, but at least I knew I was sane and had not been hallucinating. Relief washed through me.

Then, Mrs. Deer gathered herself from the confusion of the hydra. Her eyes looked wild, yet firm. She raised her hands, almost defiantly. I suddenly felt a surge of pity and guilt. The monster had come after _me_. I had endangered my classmates, my teachers. Because of me, they had almost gotten killed. How could I have done this?

"Now hold on just a second!" Mrs. Deer snapped. Her voice rang sharply through the air.

"What's wrong?"

"Your daughter over here blew up the whole bus, scared bus driver and you think you can get her away without going to the police first?" she shouted angrily.

I gaped. My heart seemed to stop. What was she talking about? I had just _saved_ them - and myself - from a bloodthirsty monster! _It_ had blown up the bus! I had not done anything except trying to stop it! What was she -

"Nothing happened, you don't remember anything..." My mother said, her tone calming yet commanding. Her voice rolled over Mrs. Deer. She snapped her fingers, and a familiar-looking white cloud drifted from her fingers.

Like magic, Mrs. Deer's blue eyes clouded. Then she looked up, confused.

"What... What happened?" She asked, frowning slightly.

I stared, uncomprehending. My mind whirled in disbelief. I never knew my mother could erase memories! Well, I never knew she shoots fireballs that destroys Hydras either. Since when did she have such power? As far as I knew, she was just simply a normal, mortal woman. Not someone who... who... Well...

"The bus broke down, and I came here to get my daughter. Can we go now?" My mom said smoothly. It sounded so convincing even I believed it for a second. Wow, I thought, she was much better at lying than I ever thought...

"Oh yes, of course Alice, you may go."

"Thanks!" My mom started dragging me into her small, silver car. We got in, and she immediately started driving at top speed. As we sped off, I heard Mrs. Deer yelling behind us, "Wait! You can't go! YOU HAVE TO EXPLAIN YOURSELVES TO THE POLICE!"

"What exactly is going on mom?!" I demanded. I wrung my hands. So much had happened today, I was surprised I wasn't already crumbling to pieces. "What is happening?"

My mom sighed.

"Sorry, Xinyue, I might have broken your perfect record. You'll have to switch schools soon."

Record? I wondered if I should Google my mom. Wonder what I might find... Was she some sort of sorceress or something? No, wait, I thought. Was she purposefully changing the subject?

"What are you talking about, mom? And start from the beginning. Please!"

My voice shook. Even I was surprised at how desperate I sounded.

I expected her to tell me everything, explain to me exactly what was going on, right from the start, and tell me that everything was going to be all right. Instead, she said the last thing I expected her to tell me.

"Do you want cookies, Xinyue?!"

My heart sank like a stone. I stared at her, exasperated.

"Mom, I still have a lot of cookies from lunch. I almost got killed twice and getting spewed with yellow powder does not help my appetite, and besides, I just ate!"

"WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING ON YOU?!" My mom threw her hands up, off the steering wheel and started yelling. I shrank back in my seat. I guess she also had attention disorders or whatever they were called, oh yeah, ADHD.

"What?"

"Um... Nothing."

Immediately, I could tell that she was not telling me something. I knew _that_ about my mother, at least. Every time she said "nothing", it clearly was _something_.

"You're hiding something."

"Umm..." By now I could definitely tell that something was up. Something important. She began to drive with one hand while twirling her hair anxiously with the other.

I clutched at my seat, my palms sweating. The car veered a little to the left, then swayed to the right, then...

"Slam on the breaks, mom! Can't you see that crazy car driving toward us?!" I yelled.

"Huh?"

"There was a car in front of you three seconds ago! You didn't notice?!"

"Err..."

I sighed. As great as she was, my mother was anything but careful. All those lectures to me about taking care of my things and not getting into trouble, and she was as careless as someone could be.

As we pulled to our driveway, I noticed the front door was open. I frowned. This was quite odd. However, judging from my mom's unworried expression, I guessed she was the one who left it open.

When I was about to step in, she stopped me. "I'm going to do a scan first." My mind spun. _Now_ what was going on? Energy drained out of me. So much had already happened today. I did not want to go through some other episode of strangeness without anyone giving me any straight answer to anything. Besides, I was not even sure I even knew my mother anymore. I opened my mouth, about to protest, when she brought out that stick she used to blow flames with out of thin air - was it a wand?

Mom muttered something I could not make out. Then, she told me to go inside.

"Can you start explaining now?" I asked as I plopped down on the sofa.

"Sorry, Xinyue, it's not safe to explain," she said, coming in.

"Why not?"

"I'll tell you after the war ends."

"What war?" The wars we were studying for current events flew past my head, but none of them seemed like the one she was talking about.

"Too dangerous for you to know."

"When does it end?" Even if the war had nothing to do with me, I still wanted more knowledge. I felt frustrated beyond belief. I wanted to know things. I _hated_ being kept in the dark.

"August 18."

"How do you know that?"

"It will end one way or another."

What kind of answer was that? I shook my head. I decided to switch tactics. If normal talking could not get me anywhere, I hoped this would make her give away more answers.

"Why are we moving?"

"It's safer that way," she replied.

I stared in silence. This conversation was seriously giving me a headache. And by now, I knew that asking what she meant by "safer" was not going to get me anywhere. Why could she not give me a straight answer for once?

I wondered what to say next.

"Can we move to New York?"

It came from nowhere, as if someone else had said the name through my vocal cords. But the second it came out, I realized a part of me _did_ want to be in New York.

"Not now."

"Why not?"

"Because it's unsafe, Xinyue. Please."

Her voice cracked slightly, and I realized just how stressed she looked then. She still trembled slightly, and her voice quivered. Part of me felt a little guilty. I knew I shouldn't be piling my mom with questions when she was clearly so stressed, but at least I was getting some clarifications, even if most of them raised more questions than they answered.

"Why do you want to move to New York?" Mom asked me curiously.

"Just because." I shrugged. I had been having a weird, tingly feeling that I should be in Manhattan. Somehow, I knew beyond a doubt that I was supposed to be there, not stuck here. However, I was not going to tell my mom about this when she clearly had enough things to worry about.

"Because you were born there?"

"I guess I wanted to see where I spent the first two years of my life."

That might be it! I wanted to see the spot where I was somehow born, even when the terrorists were attacking not more than three miles away - yes, I was born on September 11th. But I also had a feeling it was more than that.

I decided to change the subject.

"How come Mrs. Deer thought I attacked the bus driver? And since she mentioned him, where is he?"

"Um... I'll tell you later."

"Where did Mrs. Deer come from, anyway?"

"I'll tell you later."

"What happened to Mrs. Johnson?"

"I'll tell you later."

I clenched my fingers.

"Why are you saying 'I'll tell you later' so much?"

"Well.."

"Are you an impostor trying to be my mom?"

"_No_!"

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, Xinyue!"

I sighed, this was my mother, even if she was a little... Strange. Come to think of it, she had been acting a little off since the end of April.

"So... what do we do now?"

"Hmm..."

My usually carefree mother was actually looking thoughtful. Uncertainty fluttered in my stomach.

"How much martial arts did your grandpa teach you?"

_What_? Where had that come from?

"Not a lot. Wh - Why?"

"Show me."

I gaped at her, now totally lost for words. Show her? Show her.. how? And how did fighting suddenly come into the picture?

"What kind do you want me to show you?"

"Just fight me."

"Are you crazy?" There was my mother, sitting there calmly and telling me to _fight_ her. I understood she was good - she was good at almost everything she did - but what kind of mother tells her children to _fight_ her?

"No."

The firmness of her voice struck me. She really was not joking then, which meant that she either _was_ crazy, or she had changed to someone I barely recognized since I last saw her. Maybe the impostor idea was really still available.

"Um... okay?"

I shuffled my feet awkwardly for a while. Then I took a deep breath. I might as well follow instructions. If weird events were really spiraling out of control, I might as well try my best to follow.

I attacked my mother. Don't blame me! I had been trained to follow directions! Besides, I was pretty sure she could defend herself just fine.

I tried the first move my grandfather had taught me: pressure points. I hadn't mastered his method of freezing a person by striking their pressure points, but I could make the arm of whoever that pissed me off _really_ numb.

As I reached for my mother, she held her hand out as if giving me a hug. Then at the last moment, she grabbed me and flipped me onto the plush sofa on which she sat. I cursed silently. I hadn't even realized that the position I was in is great for Aikido. I had heard about masters in my grandpa's dojo talking about how great my mother was, but she was still much better than I had thought.

My mother smiled.

"Not bad, I see Gramps had taught you well."

But hidden in her voice, I could tell she wanted to add _but_ _not good enough_. My mother was nice, but she was a harsh grader. I suddenly felt disappointed. I so wanted to live up to her expectations, yet even though I tried my best in everything, it never seemed to be enough.

"Remind me," I said, "why are you testing my fighting skills?"

She shrugged.

"So you won't be behind."

What did that mean? Disappointment and annoyance fluttered inside me again. I would not be behind in this, except perhaps to my grandfather and mother. I needed to live up to their expectations.

"Here, I'll teach you sword fighting." My mom said, and led me towards the basement.

So, she wasn't teaching me self defense? Just a moment ago, she wanted me to learn martial arts, and now... sword fighting? I had never even tried holding a sword before! Besides, why was my mother suddenly so interested about letting me learn self defense?

"And I will need this skill because..."

"So you won't die in the future." My mom replied matter-of-fact-ly, as though this was supposed to be obvious.

"Um... many people lived without knowing how to fight." I wanted to add not many people didn't even know what self defense was, but I decided not to.

My mom sighed. She put a hand on my shoulder.

"Xinyue, I'm really sorry, but you'll get entangled in a war soon."

What war? Didn't she say the war would end on August 18th? I would need to fight for a war that would end in two months? Me? _Fight? _Astrange kind of fear bubbled inside me. What was this day turning into? I stared at my mother in horror. Perhaps it was all a dream. Perhaps I would wake up later and find myself still in bed, the morning of the school trip.

"Why would I be willing to fight a war if I don't know anything? Why do I have to fight anyway? I'm just a girl!"

My voice had become shrill.

"You will."

"Didn't you just say you'll only explain everything once the war ends?"

"I was talking about a different war."

"How many wars _are_ there?"

Geez, how many things were the government hiding from its citizens these days?

"I don't know."

I sighed, As hard as it was to admit, I was _very_ confused right then. As I might have mentioned, I _hated_ being kept in the dark.

"What are you going to teach me?"

Instead of answering, my mom handed me the sword I had used to kill Mrs. Johnson. Or at least it looked like the sword. I gaped at it.

As if reading my mind, Mom told me, "Its the same sword"

"How? Why? What? When? How?" My mind was so messed up I couldn't even remember how to finish my sentences. I knew I should feel embarrassed. I usually kept my feelings under control, but right now I didn't even care.

"The sword is passed down the Li family for generations, I know I will have to give it to you after it appears to you."

I gaped.

"You... You can read my mind?"

"You aren't hiding your feelings like you usually do."

Huh?

My mom smiled, as though this was good news.

"Stay that way, Xinyue. You don't have much time left to feel innocent, and it is hard to go back once you aren't anymore."

What was she talking about? She was the most innocent adult I know!

No, wait. Something just occurred to me.

"_I try really hard for people to not read my emotions!_"

"Ah, your grandmother certainly taught you well, but you still have to think for yourself sometimes." My mom sighed, then looked at me sympathetically. "It's okay. I was once like you too."

I was _seriously_ considering to Google my mom now, if I figured out how to use the internet without my computer breaking up.

"Um.."

"Anyway, you will probably be kicked out of school. We could watch the news later, to see what the made of the whole hydra attack. I'm really sorry I can't manipulate people's minds that well. You'll be skipping school from today! Even if theres only three days left of school."

"Why will I be skipping?"

"You must train until you are ready, of course! We have the same fatal flaw. I don't want my daughter to end up second to someone."

"Fatal flaw?" What kind of word was that? It sounded dangerous. Scary, even.

"You always want to be first right?"

"Yeah?"

"So you should work hard for it!"

"Ok then... But who am I competing against?"

"You'll know later."

"But I want to know _now_! Please, mom!" The word _competition_ always fired me up. It must be the fatal flaw my mom talked about. Well, even if it was, I could _never_ step down a challenge.

"Well, then, Xinyue," My mom started, "let the training begin!"

**YAY IM DONE WITH ANOTHER CHAPER IM SO HAPPY!**

**and the Xinyue's mom having magical powers is random, I just wanted 2 find a reason for Xinyue's mom's perfection.**

**Also, should I end this story and make a sequel?**


	7. My Friend Turns into A Tree

**My Friend Turns into A Tree**

"Now, Xinyue. You thrust out the weapon like that and -"

Knock. Knock.

"- you hook the hilt onto the enemy's -"

Knockknockknock.

My mother frowned.

"Who'd be knocking on our door now?" I asked, curious, as a series of frantic rapping thudded against the door, as if someone is about to break in.

"Lets go check."

I followed mom upstairs. I tapped the jade embedded in the hilt of my sword three times, and it turned back into a necklace. Handy trick, I thought. Even if I still wasn't sure about how it worked, I was glad that I could have a weapon that would not send the metal detectors screaming whenever I visited a museum.

We reached the door. I extended out my hand, reaching for the door handle. The second I opened it, a green blur tackled me with a hug.

"XINYUE! I was so worried about you!"

It was Willow. A wave of guilt overwhelmed me. I had spent such a long time without a real friend that I had forgotten how it was like to have a friend like Willow. She had stayed by me every time I needed someone. She had accompanied me around, even tried to defend me against Madison and her gang. All the while I had even practicing swordplay with my mother, I had not even thought about her, and how worried she must have felt. Hell, I hadn't even tried to call her and tell her about moving away. What had been wrong with me?

But how did she know what had happened?

"I'm sorry, Willow, I forgot to tell you."

"Its okay!" She gave me a broad, warm smile. "I was just worried about an attack."

My heart swelled. "So you know about the weird things that happened?"

"Well... um..."

Willow dropped her gaze and started fiddling with her fingers. Then, she looked at my mom, pointedly avoiding my gaze. My heart fell. It was clear she was hiding something. When had everyone started keeping secrets from me? Or perhaps she was just shy?

"What's wrong?"

"I - uh - nothing!"

I frowned. Definitely suspicious.

"Mom, can I talk with Willow in private for a sec?" I asked my mom. I guessed Willow didn't want to tell me anything with her around.

"Sure! I'll make you guys some food!" My mom smiled, and slipped into the kitchen.

"Soo... whats going on?" I put on a cheery voice and asked Willow when I was sure that my mom was out of earshot. Maybe now my friend would tell me what she needed to.

I wanted her to tell me everything: how it all began, what these things meant, basically everything that my mother was so secretive about. But instead, she said the last thing I wanted to hear.

"Um... I don't know if its safe to tell you."

Anger flared inside me. Right, so now even she did not think it appropriate to at least tell me something? I clenched my fists, trying to control myself. I wanted to know things. I needed to know things. Its part of my personality! Now, it was as if everyone knew exactly what was going on, all except me, as if it was all a huge joke at my expense. First, my own mother had refused me information, and now, my best friend was keeping me in the dark. Did they not understand? It was I who had to face down the Fury, I who had been put through the terror of a poison-spitting hydra. I, not any one of them! After being through all this, they still did not think I have a right to know what was happening?

"Willow, a poison-spitting hydra and my former English teacher both just attacked me and you STILL THINK ITS NOT SAFE TO TELL ME?"

My voice rose to a shrill yell. Willow shrank back and fixed her gaze on the floor, fidgeting her feet. An amalgam of emotions danced across her face: guilt, concern, awkwardness, confusion, and even fear.

I stood there, glaring at her. I knew I should be more controlled, but at that moment, I didn't care. After what felt like an eternity, she finally spoke.

"I'm... well... I'm not sure your mom would be happy to have you know before its time."

"Don't tell me it's the August 18th thing again."

"How did you know?" A spring of surprise leapt in Willow's voice.

"My mom told me something about a war ending. What's that about? Please tell me! And did you and mom discuss about this already? What are you two on about?" Ha, I thought. Even if I didn't notice weird things about my mom before, I could still read people this much.

"Err..."

I hid my smirk. Yup, caught her. Just a little bit more, and she might just start telling me everything.

"Please, Willow?" I usually didn't beg, but not knowing anything is killing me!

"Um..." She shuffled around, picking at her fingernails, still looking hesitant.

"Tell me as much as you can!"

As soon as I said it, I mentally cursed. That was stupid. What if she told me she couldn't tell me anything? I crossed my fingers hard and bit the insides of my cheeks.

"Well..." Whenever Willow got nervous, she kind of turned green. I usually thought that it was because she was very pale. Suddenly, a thought struck me out of nowhere. It seemed crazy, but I had been through so much crazy stuff already that it did not seem to matter. Besides, if hydras existed, then...

"Willow?"

"Huh?"

"Are you a willow tree?"

The look on her face was priceless. She jumped so badly she almost leapt out of her skin.

"How did you know?"

"Deductive reasoning."

I shrugged. After my teacher had turned into a bat and attacked me with talons, I was ready for a lot more surprises. My friend being a tree? Well, that was not as bad as what could have happened. At least she was not a monster of some sort. Trees weren't bad. Thinking about this, I suddenly had to suppress a desire to laugh. A week ago, if someone had told me that I would be attacked by teachers who were secretly Furies, or make friends with a tree, I would have stared at them like they were insane. But here I am, calmly accepting the fact that my best friend is not human, not even freaking out about it. I guess that all the weird things that had happened - like exploding buses, magical mothers, learning weird things - as well as just being here, living in America, getting kicked out of a school - I never got in big trouble in school back in China! - had really changed me.

Somehow, without me even realizing it, I had shrugged out of the Chinese girl who had a perfect record and reasoned with logic, and squeezed into someone who did not even mind the fact that she had gotten expelled from school.

Wow.

I tried not to show my emotions.

"Let me guess, you are a nymph." I was getting the hang of guessing now.

"Dryad, but why are you so good at guessing?"

I smiled.

"Just because."

Then my mother's voice rang down the corridor.

"Xinyue and Willow! Do you guys want cake?"

That distracted me. I loved cakes, even if I was hopeless at trying to make them. After one's last few baking experiments had turned out disastrous, one simply learned to give up.

"Of course!"

"Then you have to help!"

"No!" I moaned. After making a tray of charred cookies, mushy cheesecake and burnt cupcakes, I was not willing to start cooking again.

My mom threw me a playful smirk.

"Wow the perfect Xinyue can't cook!"

I cursed silently. Was she really twenty years older than me? By the way she talked sometimes, you would have thought she was much younger. Even so, her words fired me up. I did not want to back down from a competition, even if my mom's sweets belong to a five-star bakery.

"Fine..." I relented. "What do you want me to do?"

My mother grinned at me.

"I'm glad you asked!"

She winked at me and smiled her mwahaha-I'm-gonna-make-you-suffer smile. Uh oh. I wondered what she was going to make me do.

Five minutes later, Willow and I were squashed against one side of the marble kitchen counter, covered in cake batter yet still getting nowhere with anything, stopping every now and then to lick the buttery mixture of our hands. It tasted delicious, perhaps even better than actual baker cake. I wondered why we couldn't we just eat it like this? Meanwhile, my mom was happily beating up the batter of more cheese cake.

"Remind me," Willow started, her bright green eyes glaring at me, "how did it turn out like this?"

"Well..."

I knew that my mother was one of the hardest person in the world to beat in a contest, but I just couldn't resist the temptation of one, even if the last three ovens I touched exploded. Challenges and light taunts just got to me somehow, more than I had ever let on. I never could back down. It was just part of me. Me. No matter how much I wanted to change, to become less sensitive, I simply couldn't.

Even if the last three ovens I touched had exploded. All that had happened had been the cake mix exploding after I had accidentally spilled vinegar on top of the baking soda. Well, I reflected, it at least had actually been quite mild compared to the other explosions I made. My mother's expression had been priceless. Then a second later, she had turned back to me, scowling slightly, telling me over and over again that it was because of me that the baking had failed at I really had to be more careful in future. I closed my eyes tight shut, and could still see the image of the exploding oven shattering through my mind's eye, and my mother's disapproving expression frowning at me.

I turned to Willow.

"Well... Um... mymomalwayswinsincompetitionsandiwananbeatherandso ialwayschallengeherbutshealwayswinsandireallyreall ywananbeatherandiwannawinbutididntknowthatitwoulde xplodeafteriputvinegarinit" I muttered incoherently, my Chinese accent returning in a rush of nervousness.

Willow frowned slightly. "What?"

I took a deep breath, steadying myself.

"My mom always wins in competitions and i wanna be good too, and so i always challenge her but she always wins, and teases me lots of times... I really wanted to be as good as her, but I never knew that the cake would explode when I put vinegar.

Willow looked at me sympathetically and sighed.

"I seriously think that competition is your fatal flaw..."

"Fatal flaw! My mom said something about it too! What is it?"

"Well," Willow replied, glancing at me, "just try your best to control your need to win."

I swallowed. That sounded quite impossible. For as long as I remember, I always needed to win. I wanted to be first, never second. Second always meant the first one to lose, which was not something to be proud of. I knew that this made me seem insufferably arrogant and viciously competitive, but I just could not seem to change.

"Whatever. Can we please just leave this to your mom?"

Willow sounded really tired of trying to making cake. She wiped sweat off her forehead and scraped batter off her sleeve. I guess cake mix splattered on her skirt did not help much. Besides, trees usually didn't eat cake, much less bake cake.

I wanted to agree. I had no luck trying to beat batter either. But still. If I did, wouldn't I lose my mother's dare? I so badly did not want that to happen. I gulped.

As if reading my thoughts, Willow said, "Come on, Xinyue. You know you can't win against your mom, so why try?"

I stared at her incredulously.

"How...?"

For as much as I knew, it was hard to read my emotions. The exception was my mom, of course.

"I can read emotions." Willow shrugged.

I stared at her, my eyes wide as goldfish eyes. How could she just simply shrug off this kind of power of reading minds? This meant that she could read my thoughts, my emotions and fears. She probably now knew everything about me that I was not proud of. What else had she not told me about herself?

"Hey! You never told me you have supernatural powers either!" Willow defended.

Supernatural powers? I did? Now that she mentioned it, studies had always been surprisingly easy for me. I had always thought that this was because I worked hard, but was this the reason?

Then Willow seemed to sag. Her eyes darkened slightly and she sighed. "Xinyue, I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"I'll explain. Trust me."

Then she disappeared down the corridor, calling out to my mother.

"Ms. Li, Xinyue and I are going to the park now!"

I was still confused as Willow dragged me out of my house and towards the nearby park.

"Willow, what's going on?"

Seeing the bewildered look on my face, Willow must have come with the same conclusion I did. She cast me a sad look. Her green eyes, always so full of life, suddenly looked mournful.

"So your mom never told you." She said.

I rolled my eyes as I plopped down on the swings.

"Well, I guess my mom didn't tell me a lot of things before today. I never thought she could be so secretive!"

Willow gave me a you-never-know look. I sighed. What else was my mom hiding? For all my life, she had been the perfectly normal lady I knew, even if she's overly perfect. Then, bam, all of a sudden, mythological things were real and mom was somehow part of them. Though I did have a feeling my mom was not her usually cheerful self. She had seemed different since we arrived in America. Well, it might just be because of the war she had talked about.

I pushed the thought aside. Thinking about it too much would just drive me nuts. I looked around. Well, since we were in the park, I decided to ask her something that had just occurred to me.

"So which one's your tree?"

I scanned the trees around me. They all looked pretty old, with thick trunks and gnarled roots. Hopefully, my friend was not fifty years older than me. But if her name was Willow, then she must be a willow tree right? Willow trees didn't usually live past fifty years.

"The willow tree of course. There's only one in the park."

Willow pointed to the lush green weeping willow tree with sweeping leaves next to the pond. It bent over the water, swaying almost mournfully in the breeze. I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that that tree was actually my friend. Whoa. Even with all the weird stuff that had happened, I still could not fully stomach that fact.

"Um, just wondering, how old are you exactly?"

The willow tree looked like it had been here since the town had started, but I guess you never knew with fast growing plants.

Willow shrugged.

"I don't know... Time isn't really important for a tree. I'm probably around fifty years. Or sixty. I don't know exactly.

Fifty years? Wow. My skinny best friend, who tied braids and wore flowery dresses, attended the same school as me, was actually fifty years' old. I swallowed. Then something occurred to me, and my stomach seemed to drop. Hadn't my grandmother told me that a Willow usually only lived for thirty years? I decided not to bring that up.

"How come there's only one willow tree?"

The willow tree was my grandmother's favorite plant. She had once told me that it had magical properties. Well, from all the things I learned today, I would not be surprised if it really has magical powers.

Willow's face darkened. She seemed to sag slightly, and the corners of her lips turned down. Her expression turned sad, mournful even. I immediately knew I had asked the wrong question.

"The others had to move away after their tree died. My tree is stronger than most, but your mother foreseen it would die very soon. She... She told me to tell you before it's too late. This is what I was trying to tell you, Xinyue."

I felt like someone had thrown a brick at me. The world seemed to be yanked out from beneath my feet. My head spun dizzyingly. Did this mean that Willow was going to die? Emotions clawed their way up my stomach; fear, desperation, shock and misery swirling together into a black amalgam of color, choking me. I bit my lip. My friend was going to die. My one and only friend was leaving me, for good. I had never had a friend like Willow before, and she had to be taken from me after I just got to properly know her? It was so unfair! Tears welled up in my eyes, threatening to fall. My heart weighed heavier than the earth.

"It's okay, Xinyue. Don't cry, please don't cry!"

Willow put an arm around me. Her voice was soothing. A lump formed in my throat.

"I'll just find a new tree. It might take a while with the war, but eventually I'll come back."

That warmed me. She was not gone for good. I could see her again. Hope sparked in my chest. I gathered my composure and tried for a weak smile.

"If you do, I'll make sure to find you!" I promised. She smiled at me one last time. It suddenly struck me, that very moment, how pretty she was. She did not need to be like Madison and her gang, with their makeup and ridiculous diets. She, with her petite features and sincere smile, was the most beautiful friend I had had.

"Until that day then, Xinyue. I have to leave now, I led you here to say good-bye."

She had mixed emotions on her face: regret, fear, sadness all mixing together. But one thing I knew for sure: Her tree was almost dead. Maybe after a few days, or even a few minutes.

"Bye Willow!"

Green mist started to swirl around her. A sudden surge of desperation shot through me. I needed to capture this moment. I probably would never see her again. I needed to memorize her; her voice, her smile, her friendship. I couldn't just let her leave like this! I had so much to talk to her about: my life back in China, how it was like being a tree, and a whole bunch of other things.

Yet the words got trapped in my throat. All I could do was wave at her as the green mist slowly dissolved her into a mixture of flowers, branches, and thin, long, leaves.

The only thing left of my only friend.

I stood there for what felt like an eternity, staring at the spot where Willow had vanished, struggling not to cry. How would I ever find another friend like her? How long would it take for me to find her again? I will find her, I promised myself. I will. And I would not give up until I did.

"I'll find you Willow," I promised. " I swear it on the River Styx."

**special thanks to Ivy my beta reader! I'm so happy that I have such a wonderful editor~~~**

**This story is going to end soon and I'm going to make a sequel**

**And I watched Tsubasa Chronicles and its soo good!**

**anyways back to main topic, PLEASE REVIEW I REALLY WANTED TO KNOW WHAT OTHER'S THINK EVEN IF YOU ARE GOING TO TELL ME MY STORY SUCKED! I WANTED TO IMPROVE~**


	8. My Mother is Made of china

**My Mother is Made of china**

When I got home, I found my mother laughing at the television screen. Looking closer, I saw an image of me from a few months ago, before I moved to America. My mouth dropped open. I looked so different back then! My hair was perfectly straight, and I smiling that good-girl smile I hated. I blushed. Having the whole country see me like that was not cool. Besides, what was I doing on television?

Before I could ask, the camera switched back to the reporter.

"This is definitely a surprising turn of events. Who knew that such an obedient girl would blow up a bus, injuring the bus driver?" the reporter said. "Now, let's see what her classmate, a hardworking and vivacious student, Madison, has to say about this."

As she spoke, the reporter turned toward the student next to her. It was Madison. Her hair was tied back in a high ponytail and her lips had enough gloss to paint a section of my living room wall. She smirked at the camera. I gritted my teeth. Why did it have to be her of all people? Now, I had to stand here, helpless, and watch as she told the whole world that I was a crazy terrorist, after I had saved her stupid life! I wanted to punch a hole in the television, but my mother kept laughing.

"They really could find reason for anything! Mortals never fail to impress me," my mother said between giggles. I stared at her, uncomprehending. I didn't see why it was so funny. Was she laughing at me? On the contrary, I thought this was the worse thing that could happen after all those monster attacks. Before, whenever I came on the news, it was for good things, like winning that piano contest last time, never for something like blowing up a bus.

Besides, I didn't even touch that bus driver! Why were people all blaming me? I never did anything on that day except kill the hydra and save their lives!

I watched as Madison batted her eyelashes, flashed her charming smile and described me as "an overworking person without a life who cracked under the unnecessary stress".

I balled my fists. Why couldn't that fountain have drowned her? And did my mom find people insulting me for no reason funny?

I was about to open my mouth to start yelling at the television, when the scene on the screen switched to a report of a recent freak storm in Kentucky. My mother shut off the television.

"What -" I began.

I cleared my throat, glaring at the screen where just seconds ago, Madison's glossy, sneering lips had told everyone that I had blown up the bus. Hot, red anger surged through me, boiling through my veins and burst through a dam in my chest.

"What was so funny? And why do all of them think I caused the explosion?!" My voice rose to a shout. I knew it was not fair to my mom to yell at her like this, but I was so angry it just came spilling out. Suddenly all the control I had maintained over the past week cracked like shattering glass. I had been attacked by monsters who shouldn't exist; my mother had become someone I barely recognized and talked about things that scared and confused me half to death; I had been kicked out of school; my only friend had just disappeared into green mist and I might never see her again; and my reputation and pride had just been thoroughly smashed to pieces by that infernal report on the news channel!

I started shaking so violently I had to bury my face in my hands. Was this all just a dream? Would I wake up and find myself back in my bed in China, normal and confident and still me?

I burst into tears. It was all simply too much. I no longer cared about how weak I must look. I no longer cared about being perfect. I just stood there, and let all the confusion and fear rip through me in streams of tears.

My mother wrapped her arms around me, and I sobbed into her chest. When she spoke, her voice was soothing and gentle, washing over me. I found myself drinking it in desperately, grateful for at least something.

"It's alright, Xinyue," she soothed. "It's just part of you growing up. It'll be fine. I understand. Things may seem confusing and hopeless now, but trust me, you will find out the truth. You will.

"Do you want to try sword fighting again?" she asked after a while. "We can practice that move I showed you yesterday."

I swallowed hard, holding in a sob. I needed to get back my control. I should not be this weak! I stepped away from my mother and took a few deep breaths.

"Okay," I managed.

...

My mom didn't seem surprised to know that Willow's tree had died. I still had not wrapped my mind around the fact that she could tell the future, but I tried to just take it in, along with all the other things that made my head hurt. After all, my mom had promised that I would find out everything someday.

For the next five weeks, my routine was the same. After waking up in the morning, I had to run around the house and up and down the stairs five times until I was sweaty and out of breath, nearly fainting of exhaustion. Only after then could I have breakfast. After breakfast, I learned pressure points again, and read battle tactic books ('for future reference'). Perhaps this was for the whatever war that was going on, but I had learnt not to ask questions. The responses my mother gave raised more questions than answered.

Reading was followed by dance, then lunch, sword fighting, regular fist fighting, then finally dinner and sleep. I got to bed dying of exhaustion every night, every muscle in my body aching. However, I tried my utmost not to complain. For Willow's sake, I would train as hard as I could.

The days melted into each other in a blur of hot summer air. July snaked past. I started to count down the days left to August the 18th. Thinking about it filled me with a combination of fear, uncertainty, as excitement that sent tingled running through my spine and down to my fingertips. I did not know what that day really meant, but I knew that by that day, I would find out everything. Besides, it gave me something to focus on.

Even so, I found myself waking up in the mornings, hope fluttering inside me. Perhaps this would be the day my mom started explaining things. Perhaps I did not have to wait until August 18th, which seemed so far away. But no. By nightfall, whatever sparks of hope I had were doused by disappointment.

Then came the day at the end of July that would change my life, shaking the very foundations of the world I thought I lived in.

...

It started when my mom called me to the living room after dinner with an extremely serious expression on her face. My heart fluttered nervously. My mom never looked this serious. She was usually cheerful, light-hearted person who tried her best to make things easygoing and calm. It she was looking at me like this, it meant that something was definitely wrong.

"So..." I started, breaking the wall of tense, uncomfortable silence that hovered in the usually cheery room.

My mother took a deep breath. She looked a little pale. Her eyes were filled with an expression I could not make out - worry? Fear? Uncertainty? When she spoke, she did not sound like herself. Her voice quavered slightly, and she spoke three times as fast as her usual speaking speed.

"We don't have much time left, Xinyue. Please, just this once, listen carefully to what I am going to say. Don't interrupt, please. It could be life or death."

I was stunned into silence. Life or death? What was going on? Besides, my mom was seriously starting to worry me. If something could make her this serious and jumpy, it was definitely bad. Still, a part of me leaped, starting to hope again. Perhaps this was the time she would explain everything to me!

I braced myself, preparing for the unbelievable. I swallowed, composing myself. I was ready.

But nothing I did could have prepared me for my mother's next words.

"I am not your mother. I am a shabti."

I felt like the world had just been yanked out from under my feet. Nothing made sense anymore. What had she just said? I must have heard it wrong, right? My mother wasn't my mother? My mind started to swirl, dissolving in a vortex of chaos. What? What? WHAT? So she was... She was... My own mother was... an impostor? What was a shabti? And how could I not know if my mother was not my mother?

"The reason you didn't notice is because your mother made me, and she is one of the most powerful magicians that ever lived. I'm sorry, Xinyue, but your whole family is exiled because of improper use of magic."

I tried to digest what she had said. So my mom had magical powers? She was a magician? She was - she was - made? Did this explain the reason why all those monsters attacked me? Because of whatever reason my family was exiled?

I was too shocked to speak. Finally, I managed to choke out one word.

"Exiled?"

"The main cause of their exile is because of you."

I shook my head, feeling like a bomb had been dropped right in front of me out of a clear blue sky. What did I do wrong? I never even knew that I had a family of... of... Magicians? I could not breathe. My head spun.

My life had been a lie.

I could only watch, helpless, as every fabric of what I had known as reality was ripped away.

My mother saw my face and her expression softened. "You didn't do anything wrong of course. The exile was because your mother saw a reason to connect the two worlds, and the connection is you."

I wanted to slap my hands over my ears and block everything out. Hearing that my mother was, in fact, an impostor was driving me insane. Listening to her refer to herself in the third person was just too much to stand. I began to shake my head vigorously from side to side, as though this would make the words I was hearing less true. I wanted to go back to my normal life and my normal school with my normal classmates back in China! I didn't like the sound of "connection" and "two worlds". So I was a bridge? And what were the two worlds? As far as I know, there's only one planet with life, and I am living on it.

"You need to reach New York as fast as you can, but don't enter Manhattan until after August 18th. Do not ride planes, and switch buses as much as you can, also don't take taxis. When you get there, look for Long Island, then a camp with a pine tree with a dragon guarding it. Don't trust anyone."

I shook my head again. What kind of instructions were that? Besides, as I watched, I realized that my mother was definitely not looking right. Her usually lush hair was now dry and papery, and her lips looked pale and cracked.

"Contact your grandparents after you reach the camp. The director will know a way. Think for yourself, don't let anyone affect your decisions."

As she spoke, cracks began appearing from my mom's forehead, as though she was made of porcelain. I cried out in alarm, but she raised her hand to keep me quiet.

Her voice sounded raw and brittle. "She is proud of you, and do everything you could to make things right."

The cracks were getting bigger, spreading down on her arms and legs, her skin was turning grey, hardening and breaking right before my eyes -

"Also, bring -"

The shabti that used to be my mother crumbled. A sphere of strong, blue light emerged from her mouth and flew away, leaving the lifeless mound of china behind.

I stood there, shaking, unable to believe everything that had happened. Shakily, I put a hand to my mouth, and let myself collapse onto the ground.

Two important person to me gone in less than two months. Tears threatened to fall as I lay trembling on the ground, but I held them back with all my willpower. I needed to be strong. I needed to focus. For my own survival. For some sense in my life. For finding out what was going on.

For Willow and my mother.

My mind raced, replaying what my 'mother' had just said. The first step was to get to that camp she talked about. But how come she told me not to travel by plane? What had she been about to say? What was I supposed to bring?

I cannot decipher what had not been said. I looked around the house. It was simple, just as I had known it. There were no helpful journals that could help me understand things, no secret trap door that could give me answers.

I sighed. This is real life Xinyue, not random fantasy books!

Fantasy books... That struck a chord in my mind. I still hadn't finished that book my mom had given me. I dug it out of my closet. My grandma had told me that everything had a purpose in life. Maybe my mom had planted this book on me so that I could understand things later. Come to think of it, I did remember a part about New York, Long Island, and a camp with a pine tree.

Gingerly, I flicked open the book. The letters popped in and out, blurring into each other. Dyslexia. This was the reason I had stopped reading the book in the first place. No matter how hard I tried, I could not finish a chapter without my head aching. How come I could read perfectly fine when I read Chinese? Even if I have 'mild dyslexia', its still a pain to concentrate on something I could usually do really quickly.

My fingertips tingled. Maybe this was the thing my mom had been about to tell me to bring. Perhaps it wasn't. Even so, I had a weird feeling about this book.

Somehow, I knew it was important.


End file.
